


pools on film (got your picture)

by adamantine



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 04:44:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4652754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamantine/pseuds/adamantine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru is asked to use social media a little more. Rin helps out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pools on film (got your picture)

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written with the FFF “social media” prompt in mind but 1) is a million years late 2) ended up more Haru-centric than relationship focused anyway.

Every muscle in Haru’s body seemed to scream in protest. In retrospect, he should have seen this coming. It was difficult to hold himself back in a race against Rin, even after a grueling day of training, and now he was paying the price.

“Shit, — did you get — even faster?” Rin struggled to catch his breathe. At least Haru wasn’t the only one winded by their race.

He shrugged. Despite his exhaustion, he was itching to race Rin again — or to at least do another lap in the pool. Unfortunately, his body didn’t seem to agree with him. His arms felt like lead and his legs were telling him to let them rest already, enough with the kicking. He scowled. It irritated him to be thwarted by his own physical limits. He wanted to swim and race Rin whenever he wanted.

“Oh hell no. I’m not racing you again.” Haru wasn’t sure if he was simply predictable or if Rin had some way of deciphering his scowls. “Do you want Coach Sakamoto to kill us?” Ah. It wasn’t exhaustion holding Rin back, but a healthy dose of fear — fear of a long lecture on how “professional athletes need to know when to rest.” Haru could imagine it easily — his forehead would do that thing where it became a sea of wrinkles, his baritone voice droning on and on, putting Haru to sleep.

“What am I killing you two for this time?” Haru turned around to see Sakamoto standing near the main doorway, as though Rin’s words had summoned him. He resisted the urge to dive under the water and hide.

Sakamoto was one of several coaches the worked with the national team; his specialty, if you could call it that, was keeping everyone on track and accounted for — whether that meant making sure the bus didn’t leave behind “a pair of idiots” who had lost track of time having a jumping jack contest (not Haru’s proudest moment) or, as in this case, it meant stopping those same two “gold medal imbeciles” from racing each other until one of them needed a stretcher to get home.

“Nothing, coach!”

“Nothing.”

“Hmm.” Sakamoto gave them a look that said he was on to them but (to Haru’s relief) had better things to do than scold two errant swimmers.

“Nanase. Okada wants to see you before you head out.”

Haru nodded in acknowledgement. “Okay.”

Satisfied by Haru’s response, Sakamoto left.

“Wonder what Okada-san wants to see you for.” Rin climbed out of the pool; Haru reluctantly did the same.

He shrugged. “Don’t know.” Okada Rika was head of the PR department. Haru usually only came into contact with her when she was designing promotional campaigns or setting up photo shoots and interviews. “You don’t need to wait around for me. I’ll meet you at home.”

“You sure?”

He nodded. “Who knows how long this will take.” He didn’t want to waste Rin’s time.

“I’ll make dinner then.” The smirk on Rin’s face made Haru realize his mistake. In other words, goodbye precious mackerel day. Haru thought about recanting his offer, but if Okada kept him for a while it would be pointless anyway. If he stopped by the local market on his way home, the good mackerel would be gone, nabbed by deft housewives. He’d send Rin in his place but Rin wouldn’t know good mackerel if it hit him in the face. He clicked his tongue in annoyance.

 

 

Okada’s office was clean, sleek and impersonal — the total antithesis to Sakamoto’s office (a disaster zone filled with pictures of his 3-year-old granddaughter). Glass walls allowed her to look over the workstations the rest of the PR department occupied. At the moment, however, the blinds were drawn which meant no one could see Haru squirm in his seat while Okada argued with someone over the phone.

“Be happy I’m not asking for a refund!” Haru tried to look fascinated by his hands. His nails could use a trim. “Inconvenient for you? How do you think I feel!” He could make Rin trim them. It was nice watching Rin concentrate on something. “Yes, thank you!” Well, they weren’t _that_ long. It might be easier to file them by himself. “Goodbye!” Okada slammed the phone down, huffing with annoyance. He didn’t want to use up his Shimashima-chan emery board though.

“Covered in typos!” Haru looked up to see Okada gesturing wildly in the air. “And they have the audacity to tell _me_ to correct them myself! Six hundred posters? I’m going to paste corrections over six hundred posters? I don’t think so!”

“Definitely not.” He had no idea what she was talking about.

“Right?” She rubbed her eyes in irritation. When Haru didn’t speak again, she fiddled with the office supplies on her desk, moving a pad of paper from one side to the other and putting a pen in a cup holder. “Anyway, enough about me. How are you doing these days?”

“I’m fine.”

“That’s good to hear, Haruka-kun.” She stopped, waiting for something. When Haru gave her a blank stare in return, she sighed. “I’ve heard you’ve bested your own time a few days ago?”

“Yes.” The water had been particularly agreeable that day.

“Good, good. But swimming isn’t why I called you here today.” Again she stopped, as if waiting for Haru to figure out the _why_ for himself. When he didn’t, she went on. “Do you remember what you promised me the last time we spoke?”

Haru thought back to the last time he saw her; it was after a team photo shoot a few months earlier.

“You told me to ‘make sure to post online’ about that magazine we were in when it went on sale. I did.” Haru looked puzzled. Maybe Okada had meant to use something other than Twitter? Did he get the sale date wrong?

“That’s _not_ _quite_ what I asked.” Immediately, Haru felt the temperature of the room drop. “I _suggested_ you use social media a little more and that the magazine going on sale was an _example_ of something you could post about.” She was smiling at him, but in a way that made him regret not saying “I love you” to Rin before he left, since it seemed that would be their last meeting. He had lived a good life. Short but sweet. He got to swim in many pools, even made out in a few of them. What more was there to life anyway?

“I see.”

“Haruka-kun, I’m not asking you to post something every hour of the day. But it would be in your best interest if you used social media more than every other month.” She sighed again. Haru knew his non-responses were frustrating her but, in his defense, he was preoccupied by wondering how fast Okada could run in high heels. She’d probably overtake him in seconds in his current wiped out state.

“Swimming isn’t a sport that people pay much attention to outside of the Olympics. At least, that’s how it used to be. But now with social media, fans stay engaged in the sport by following their favorite athletes. In turn, this raises attendance for other, less glamorous events and keeps the sport going. A social media presence doesn’t hurt with sponsors either. Not that you have much trouble there.” She smiled. “But you get why I keep badgering you about this, right?”

“Yes.” Haru hesitated — he wasn’t quite sure why he didn’t feel compelled to tweet about his day like Rin did, or post silly videos like Nagisa. “It’s not that I don’t like social media.” She didn’t need to know he had several private accounts used to keep track of friends. “But outside of promoting events or magazines, all I can think of posting is stuff like ‘Swam today. Had mackerel for dinner’ which I doubt people care about.” At least, he doubted total strangers had any interest in the mundane aspects of his life. He knew his friends liked to hear about his day, no matter how boring.

This time Okada’s smile was kind, her previous frustration gone. “You live with Rin-kun, right?” Haru nodded. Okada was a sharp woman; he had a feeling she was well aware he was dating Rin, but chose not to mention it as long as Haru didn’t. “You can ask him for advice on what to post. He has an excellent social media presence.”

“Okay, I’ll ask him about it.”

“Good. It was pleasure to speak to you again. Much more fun than sorting out this poster mess.” She winked at him and he gave her a small smile in return.

 

 

Haru sat at the kitchen table, staring at his cell phone. He was done washing dishes, which on a normal day was his cue to take an evening bath, but he couldn’t relax with Okada’s request weighing on his mind.

Haru stole a glance to his side and saw Rin on the couch, watching some cheesy romance drama, clutching a pillow to his chest. A girl with blunt bangs stood in the rain, having a heated conversation with a tall boy in a crew cut. She seemed to be on the verge of tears. Haru guessed this was the couple Rin was rooting for in the drama, going by the way Rin’s lips wobbled when the girl started to cry.

He went back to glaring at his phone. There had to something he could post right now. He looked at Rin’s Twitter for inspiration.

_Haru’s gotten even faster…! but so have I. I’ll definitely beat him next time._

He could write something similar, he supposed. But he found himself hesitating — was he going to copy Rin’s tweets for the rest of his life?

The familiar ending theme started, startling Haru from his thoughts. Rin stood up and stretched his arms over his head. His eyes were dry which meant the episode couldn’t have ended too badly, but something about his casualness made Haru suspect he was dying inside; the saga of blunt bangs girl and tall crew cut boy must have ended on a cliffhanger for the week.

“Not taking a bath?” Rin asked.

Haru shook his head. “I’m trying to think of something to post.” He had explained the gist of his visit to Okada’s office over dinner.

Rin walked to kitchen table and stood behind him, peaking over his shoulder to read his phone. “Does it have to be on Twitter?”

He shrugged. “She didn’t say. But it seemed the easiest since I already have a public account there.”

“Hmm… if you make a new account you can always link to it? I’ll share it too that way no one will miss it.”

“Was that a jab at my follower count?”

Rin snorted. “You’d have more if you’d actually used it for something other than sending me DMs asking for nudes.”

“That was one time.”

“Three times.” He waved three fingers in front of Haru’s face to emphasize the number.

“If you say so.”

Rin ignored him. “Why don’t you try Instagram? You can take a picture, add some emoji as a caption, and call it day.” Haru liked the sound of that.

“But what should I take a picture of?” Haru didn’t have many of his own photos stored on his phone; he was more of an artist than a photographer.

“You can take a picture of us?” When Haru didn’t respond, Rin continued on, “Or just of me?”

“The second one.”

 

 

“Not that filter! Eh, that one’s a maybe. Oh, this one looks good. No, that one! That one is the one.” After what felt like hours, Rin finally settled on a filter. Haru had given up offering his own input on the matter after Rin didn’t buy his emphatic claim that he looked wonderful in every filter, even the “lame” ones (“No one looks good in Kelvin, Haru!”).

The picture itself at least had been an easy decision: they both liked the one of Rin on the couch wearing pajamas, smiling up at Haru, one hand around his knees and the other in a peace sign. Haru found it endearing because it provided a good view of the Loosey-kun socks Rin was “borrowing” from Haru’s clean laundry; Rin liked the way it showed off his toned legs.

“Now it just needs a caption.”

“But there’s no shark emoji.”

“Don’t remind me. You’ll have to think of something else.” Rin sounded genuinely distressed.

Haru scrunched up his face and began typing.

_Rin helped me set up an Instagram account._

He paused and then added the peace sign emoji at the end.

“Is this okay?” He let Rin read the caption.

“Yeah, perfect.”

When he was done, Rin kept his promise and tweeted about Haru’s new Instagram account — which guaranteed several thousand people, including Okada, would now know about it.

“Are you going to take a bath?” Rin asked after he put his phone away.

“Maybe. Unless…” Haru met his eyes.

“Unless, what?” Rin’s voice was playful.

Haru gestured for Rin to come closer. When he did, he pulled Rin onto his lap. “Unless you know of a better way to spend my time.” He moved his hands up and down Rin’s sides.

“I have a few ideas.” Rin leaned down and kissed him.

 

 

Rin had found him the ideal site to use. Taking pictures was enjoyable; it spoke to his artistic side. It made him pay attention to the world around him, made him rethink the everyday sights he saw.

The first photos he shared were of the three pools he had access to — the one in his apartment building, the one at the gym, and the pool he trained in (this picture featured him doing laps). Given that most of his followers were swimming enthusiasts, these photos were a hit.

Also popular were the food related pictures. Him in an apron while he prepared dinner (photo courtesy of Rin), conveyor belt sushi (from when he went out to eat with Makoto), a collection of “sweets” from Nagisa (a debate over their edibility broke out in the comment section), a slice of cake in a cat café (Haru saved the images of Rin smiling while petting cats for his own private collection), and every single mackerel dish he had made since creating his Instagram account (there were less of these than he would have liked; he was forced to keep a “balanced diet befitting a professional athlete”).

One of Haru’s personal favorites was a not-so-subtle image of himself and Rin in front of the LOVE sculpture in Shinjuku. They had been arguing in front of it when a tourist came up and offered to take their picture (“Didn’t you use to have a shirt that said ‘Love’ on it?” “Shut up! I was twelve!”). When she handed back Haru’s phone she let them know — in English — that they made “a very cute couple!” A slight blush appeared on Rin’s face at her comment. The temptation to make it worse was impossible for Haru to resist: he feigned ignorance, forcing Rin to translate what she said. While this made Rin’s blush deepen, it was pretty obvious he was more pleased than embarrassed by the way he kept struggling not to smile.

Occasionally, Haru shared pictures because they reminded him of people. Like when he went swimsuit shopping and saw a rainbow tracksuit: he could picture Rei in it all too easily. Another time he saw his grandmother’s favorite flowers in the centerpiece of a store window. He ended up buying a bouquet of them, handing them to a surprised Rin at home.

There were also simply pictures of things he liked and wanted to show off. When he spotted a deep sea life gashapon he nearly emptied the entire machine in a quest to collect them all. It was only right to share a picture of his eventual triumph. Another image he _had_ to share was of an Iwatobi-chan pajama set Rin bought him as an anniversary present (complete with an Iwatobi-chan robe!). That photo made Iwatobi-chan an overnight celebrity.

“Haru. Haru.” Somebody poked the side of his stomach. “Ha~ru~. Haruka? Nanase.”

“Huh?” He opened his eyes to see Rin grinning at him.

“Finally. I told you to sleep on the airplane.” All around them their teammates were gathering their stuff and getting off the bus. Haru guessed this meant they had arrived at the training camp.

“I wasn’t tired then. I’m not tired now. I was resting my eyes, that’s all.” He deserved the look Rin gave him when he started to yawn.

“So convincing.”

“That’s right.” In truth, a mixture of excitement and nervousness had kept him up. It also didn’t help how cramped the seats were.

Rin rolled his eyes. “I’m going to go on ahead, see what room they’ve stuck us in. Don’t take too long and try not to fall back asleep.”

“I won’t.”

“Oh, and you should check your Instagram.” Rin gave him an impish grin before heading off the bus.

Check his Instagram? He grabbed his phone out of his pocket. He hadn’t posted anything in a few days. What could Rin mean—

He. Did. Not.

When his account loaded an unfamiliar image greeted him. It was of himself asleep on the bus, open mouthed and drooling against Rin’s shoulder while Rin smiled broadly into the camera.

 _Haru fell asleep on the bus._ _Isn’t he cute?_

He was going to kill him. He was going to delete his Instagram and then kill Matsuoka Rin. Japan would have to find new swimmers for its relay team.

Suddenly he had an idea. He could get payback. Haru felt invigorated. Somehow, some way, he was going to take an embarrassing photo of Rin. That would teach Rin a lesson.

He grabbed his luggage and left the bus. If anyone had asked, he would have assured them the smile on his face was the smile of someone plotting revenge and definitely **not** because Rin had called him cute.

**Author's Note:**

> AO3 is really cramping my style by not letting me use emoji.


End file.
